$1m for baby brain monitor

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

The Government has given $1 million to help Tru-Test subsidiary Brainz Instruments develop monitors to detect brain injuries in babies.

The grant from Technology NZ will be used to develop disposable sensors to attach to the babies' heads, to conduct further trials of the monitor for premature babies at Harvard University in Boston, and to extend the technology to full-term babies.

It comes as the company finalises a distribution deal with a US company that is one of the world's biggest distributors of neonatal equipment.

Brainz Instruments chief executive Mark Bellas said the US company would distribute the Machine everywhere outside New Zealand and Australia, which Brainz will continue to service directly from Tru-Test's factory in Auckland.

All manufacturing will remain in Auckland "for the moment".

The brain monitor was developed over 15 years by Auckland University medical associate professor Chris Williams, who is now the company's chief scientific officer. Brainz Instruments was established in 2001, initially as a subsidiary of another brain research company spun out of the university, Neuronz.

Dr Williams remains head of the discovery team at Neuronz as well as leading the Brainz research team, with both teams based at the Liggins Institute in Grafton.

Neuronz sold the company last November to Tru-Test, a privately owned company which is one of New Zealand's biggest exporters.

Last year it earned $125 million from exports of milk meters, electric fences, animal weighing machines and other farm equipment.

Bellas said the company was "very close" to receiving regulatory approval for the brain monitor in the US and expected to have approval to sell in Europe within six months.

He expects initial sales "in the hundreds" of machines that will retail for US$25,000 ($44,000) each.

"Beyond that it could be in the thousands."